Refrigerator



M. HKANSN June 5, 1934.

REFRIGERATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet' l Filed March 19, 195.1.

June 5, 1934. MQ HOKANSCN 1,951,361

REFRIGERATOR Filed March 191951 .2 Sheets- Sheet 2 Patented June 5,

y UNITED STA This invention relates to refrigerators, and has specialreference to a type of refrigerator commonly used for household purposesand wherein ice is used as the refrigerant.

The principal object is to produce a practical and efficient device ofthis character.

Another object is to produce a novel form of ice rack and drip panwhereby to insure even melting of the ice from the under side only insuch a manner that' the top surface of the icecake will remainpractically parallel with the bottom surface during the melting of theice cake;

this for the purpose of providing maximum uniform space above same foradditional refrigerant as supplied from time to time.

Still another object is to provide means whereby to present proper moistarea for contact with the air in circulation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator having anice rack composed wholly' Another is to provide increased circula- 85tion of air in the box, thus producing a lower working temperature.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in thefollowing description thereof. v

40 Referring now to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisapplication, and wherein like reference characters indicate like parts.

Figure 1 is a vertical transverse section through approximately .thecenter of the refrigerator emfbodying the invention:

Figure 2 is a similar view taken at right angles yto Figure 1:

Figure 3 is a fragmental portion of an enlarged plan view of the icerack Figures isan enlarged vertical sectional view of Figure 3, andfragmental end elevation: and c Figure 5 is a top plan view of a portionof the lower end of the drip pan.

`The invention contemplates the well known 56 principle in.refrigeration of exposing only the PATE 1,961,361 aEFnIGEaaToR Mmmnorma, Duluth, Minn. application March 19,1931, semi No. 523,782 1iclaims. (ci. sz-46) T Es.l

vber and for conveying moisture from the melting ice.

NT; OFFICE sussurri lower surface of the refrigerantto the circulatingair within the refrigerator, and, combining with that principle thenovel arrangement of utilizing the' products of melting ice inaugmenting the.' o0

circulation of air Withinpthe refrigerator.

1 represents the walls df the refrigeratorl which may be of any desiredinsulated construction, preferably mounted upon suitablelegs indicatedat 2, and the interior of the refrigerator isdivided as is customaryinto two major compartments, o including the food compartment 3 and icecompartment 4, together, in this instance, with a condensation andcooling compartment 5-6; this latter being in direct communication withthe food compartment 3 but normally out .f communication with the icecompartment 4.

A doorl 7 is provided in the usual manner for the ice compartment, andthe door 8 for the. food compartment. A :removable rack is provided forthe ice compartment and which preferably inclines slightly downwardlytowards the front of the refrigerator, so that the ice cake willnormally seek the front of the refrigerator. This rack is novel in thatit is of fabricated metal construction throughout, preferably of sheetcopper due to its high thermal conductivity,l and il `formed ina mannerto provide the maximum surface for'contacting the air circulatingthrough the horizontal portion 5 of the condensing cham- This rackcomprises the inverted U-shaped .strips of metal indicated at 9, theirdepending limbers are constantly full of water by capillary action.'thus preventing air 1circulation there-v through; The upper edgesof thefins or baffles 10 .1 extending above the plane of the upper surface ofthe U strips 9, are turned downwardly against themselves, thus forming areinforced double thickness bead 12 the entire length thereof upon whichthe ice is designed to rest, and prevents 1 the ice cake from movinglaterally thereupon.

`The iins` and strips of the ice rack-extend from back to front of therefrigerator and at the sides thereof are provided with mutable handlesm11-A l cated at 13 so that the rack -maybe readily trans. 1

` tinuation of the ferred to and from its angle supports'14 fixed to theinner side walls of the ice compartment.

The fins 10 are of triangular shape as viewed from the sides thereof andprovided with notched or tooth-like lower edges shown at 15 to preventwater running the entire length thereof and dripping only from thelowermost corners, thus having far superior washing and cooling eifectand keeping the drip pan wet over its entire area, and, being of theshape above described, their depth at the back of the refrigerator ismaterially greater than at the front. In fact they have practically nodepth at the front ends thereof, and the depth of fins at the rear aredesigned to compensate for the relative lack of melting properties ofthe air at that point. l

Beneath the fins, and spaced therefrom, is the drip pan illustratedbroadly at 16, it being of considerably greater angle than the ice rackand disposed downwardly from the front of the refrigerator so as tocarry water towards the back thereof. 'Ihe upper surface of this drippanl6 is of corrugated metal as illustrated at 17, terminating in theframe member 18 and insulated from the side walls of the refrigerator towhich it is attached. 'Ihe bottom of the drip pan is faced with flatsheet metal, also terminating in the frame member, but spaced from theterminus of the upper member, and forming' a space intermediate of thetop and bottom, which space is insulated by being illled with suitableinsulation material 19, preferably wrapped in oiled paper orwaterproofed in some other manner. 'The corrugations of the uppersurface 17 are arranged so that the upper convex portion of eachcorrugation occurs directly beneath the lower edge of each of thedepending mis 10, though, as before stated, spaced therefrom so that thedrippings from the various tooth-like serrations of the fins will spreaduniformly thereover. The lower edge of the upper corrugated surface ofthe drip pan is peculiar in that it projects in saw-tooth like form overthe edge of the vertical partition wall 20 of the food compartment whichforms a conrearmost vertical edge of the drip pan 16. That is to say,the valleys or concaved portions'of the member 17 extend outwardly overthe edge of the partition 20, forming a plurality of tooth-likeprojections 21 carrying the water as it runs down the valleys out ontothe ends of these teeth or nngers from where it drops vertically throughthe space 6 of the condensation compartment and eventually into thedrain outlet 22.

It will be noted that the partition 20 is pivotally supported as at 23,and a suitable latch provided at 2e for holding it in position whenupright, thus providing means whereby the partition may be droppedforwardly or removed entirely for cleansing Purposes.

By this constructionit is apparent that .the lc'e in the ice compartmentis not engaged directly by the air circulating through and about thefood compartment, and that greater area is given the bailles or uns inthe chamber 5 at the rearmost portion thereof to compensate for thehigher temperature of the air at the forward end of the rack where morerapid circulation of air exists, thus causing the ice above the rack tomelt uniformly across the lower surface thereof. By this novelconstruction of rack, as little air as possible contacts the ice,circulation of air whatever occurs between the ice and foodcompartments;

It is well known that different degrees of huof which is serrated forthe purpose described.

and that practically no midity are desired for different food products,and While a relative humidity of sixty to sixtyfive percent is commonlyconsidered most desirable `for some classes of' products a differentpercentage of moisture may be desired for other products, and to varywhich it is to be understood that the length of the capillary limbersmay be varied by the width of the spacers 11, or some other means oflengthening or shortening these. limbers may be resorted to, therebyincreasing or decreasing the area of moist surface brought in contactwith the air.

Furthermore the air passing through the cooling compartment 5 6 is notonly washed and cooled by constant contact with the largest areapossible of moistened surface, vbut is also augmented in its downwardpassage through the portion 6 of said chamber by the somewhat confineddrippings from the fingers 2l longitudinally of the upper entrance tosuch passage which rapidly gravitate therethrough, and that the greatestdistance possible within the foodcompartment between the discharge fromand entrance to the cooling compartment exists, which, together with theinclination of the ceiling of such compartment, insures the bestpossible circulation therein and avoids any stagnant 'pockets `of airwhatsoever therein.

It willalso be noted that 4by this construction due to the absence ofth'e air circulating in direct 105 contact with the ice, the coolingiiluence being derived only from beneath same', uniform results areaccomplished in the matterl of temperature; that is to say, to a largerdegree than heretofore known the uniform temperature in the food chamberis maintained irrespective of the volume of ice in the refrigerantchamber. In other words, as long as there is any ice whatever in the icecompartment'the temperature of th bailles will be approximately equal tothat'of the ice, and that 115 since the area of the bafiies presented tothe circulating air to be cooled is approximately three times theaverage area of the ice cake, it follows that the cooling influencev ofthe ice is multiplied three fold. 120

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is: 1. A refrigerator having a food chamber, a coollngand humidifying chamber and a refrigerant chamber, a fabricatedra'ck forthe refrigerant composed of a plurality of depending spaced bafilescooperatively connected with reinforcing spaced strips, said bamesextending within the cooling and humidifying chamber whereby to augmentcooling and humidifying in said chamber.

2. A refrigerator having a food chamber, a condensing chamber and arefrigerant chamber, having a rack for the refrigerant including aplurality of spaced depending baiiles the lowermost edge 3. Arefrigerator having a food chamber, a combined back wall and drip panextending from side to side of the refrigerator and spaced from the rearwall of the refrigerator, and the lower edge of said back wallbeing-spaced from the bottom of the food compartment, and means forcausing the drip from the drip pan to be evenly distributed horizontallyas it falls through the space between the back wall and rear wall.

4. A refrigerator having a food chamber and a 145 refrigerant chamber, arefrigerant rack and drip pan inclined in opposite directionsintermediate of said compartments, and spaced bailles having serratedlower edges dependingV from said rack 15o for the purpose described.

5. A refrigerator having a food chamber -and a. refrigerant chamber, arefrigerant rack and drip pan intermediate .of said compartments andspaced bailies having serrated lower edges depending from said rack, therar edge .of the drip pan being formed with a plurality of spaced dripteeth for the purpose described.

6. A refrigerator comprising a food compartment and a refrigerantcompartment, a combined drip pan and rear wall within the foodcompartment and extending from side to side of said compartment butspaced from all other walls of the refrigerator, and means to cause thedrip from the refrigerant to fall equally over the entire drip pan, saiddrip pan having projections extending into the space between the rearWall of the food compartment and back of the refrigerator. y

7. A refrigerator comprising la food compartment and arefrigerant'compartment,v and a combined drip pan and rear wall withinthe food compartment and extending from side to side of saidcompartmentbut spaced from all other walls of -the refrigerator saiddrip pan having Vhorizontally spaced projections extending into thespace between the back of the refrigerator and rear wall -of foodcompartment, whereby the air is caused to circulate through the dripfrom the refrigerant during at least half' its course of circulation.

s. The combination with a refrigerator having a refrigerant chamber andcondensing chamber, of a fabricated sheet metal `refrigerant rack, a

plurality Aof spaced limbersthrogh said rack automatically closed bycapillary action and associated with depending baies within thecondensing chamber to insure constant gravitation of moisture from therefrigerant without air from the 4condensing chamber contacting therefrigerant.

9. A refrigeratorA of the'type described com- 4prising a refrigerantcompartment, a food commediate of each pair of said strips, said baies lextending 'above and below said strips.

MARTIN HOKANSON.

